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Schools and Libraries Success Story

Northwest Arctic Borough School District - Kotzebue, Alaska

The Northwest Arctic Borough School District in Kotzebue, Alaska, encompasses approximately 37,000 square miles of territory where many of the towns are accessible only by air. Support from the Universal Service Fund (USF) Schools and Libraries Program enabled the school district to provide high-speed Internet access and distance-learning capabilities to all schools in the district. Additionally, USF support enabled the district to centralize its student management system, purchasing and accounting system, as well as to provide a district-wide e-mail network.

A school district official stated that without the benefit of USF support, the school district could not afford even basic Internet and telecommunications equipment because of the extremely high costs related to providing services to remote areas of Alaska. Another school district applicant noted that many of the district's schools are in small villages in extremely remote locations where it is not feasible for each community to maintain a large library with recent publications.

The USF-supported network provides students, teachers, and community members with access to publications from around the world. Because many of the schools are accessible only by airplane, it is cost-prohibitive to provide in-person training to district staff. Cost-effective teacher training is made possible by USF-supported distance-learning technology. The principal of Ambler School, Doni Newell, noted that her school participates in a cooperative program with the University of Alaska in Fairbanks (UAF) that allows students to study the Aurora Borealis. Ms. Newell stated that students at the Ambler School use USF-supported internal connections equipment to communicate with students at the UAF to enhance their learning experience.